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| If you see this man on a bike trail, don't laugh as you pass him. |
Lately, I have eschewed wearing my bike helmet. (Do I get points for using the word "eschew" in a bike commuting blog? Indubitably.) Instead I have been wearing a baseball cap. Most of my ball caps are pretty clean so I have been wearing my official 2004 Red Sox Championship cap. It has a little holographic sticker to prove its authenticity. I'd never be caught dead in an unauthentic Red Sox cap. I have worn it so much that it is almost as scuzzy as my Bike Virginia cap. Its best feature is the smug smile I get while wearing it and riding past people in Yankee caps (which I did on my way home tonight).
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| Click on picture. Grab magnifying glass. See the ducklings? |
On the way in to work I stopped and took a picture of the ducklings near the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge. My siblings tend to be naturally gifted photographers and golfers. My utter lack of talent in both areas raises the specter of me being the offspring of Mike the mailman. I am also the only math geek in the family (or was until I passed my math mental peak at the age of 23). I understand our mailman was awesome with differential equations.
I felt pretty good this morning after yesterday's ride in the heat and humidity. Except I had no oomph in my legs at all today. Later in the day I felt a little woozy, so the ride home was a crawl. It's pretty sad when you are riding a huge long wheel base recumbent and everybody and I mean EVERYBODY is passing you. Ah, but they did.
When I arrived at home my son, back from five days of vacationing at various posh homes of college buddies, announced that "his" car leaks gas whenever he fills it up. "His" car needs to go in to get this fixed. Tomorrow I do a modified utilitaire bike commute. I drive the car to the dealer in Alexandria and ride to work from there. The dealer is on a big hill near Fairlington so the ride back to the garage is sure to be a workout. The Mule will get the call because I don't want to muck about with Big Nellie on the back of a compact car at rush hour.
I'm not looking forward to tomorrow's commute.
Nice use of eschew which almost makes up for the unfortunate choice of MLB team gear. You know, RI, is almost equidistant from NYC as Boston. You do have a choice...
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the car repair. I have two adult children who try to convince me they are no longer kids, but with great regularity expect me to support them on issues such as car maintenance.
Big ups for the use of eschew, and for the Sox hat. Only people for whom New York is the center of the universe (e.g., Yankees fans) think that RI is as close to NY as Boston.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up with a dad who's a Yankees fan in RI (which is prime Sawx country), I can say that if anyone could pull it off respectably, he would -- and he doesn't!
There's a dotted line that meanders from Dambury area over to Narragansett that separates Sawx country from the other guys.
DeleteI've ridden Providence to Boston in about 3 hours. I don't think I could ride Providence to NYC that fast.
I do the drive-ride commute most days too. I live a long way from my work, and it's just not realistic timewise to ride the whole way. So most days, I drive until I get off the highway, about 5 miles from work, and then I ride from there. It's the best part of my day, especially if traffic on the highway is barely moving.
ReplyDeleteFor a while the combo of the Wilson Bridge construction and my kids' school and camp schedules resulted in my driving 3 miles and parking outside the beltway then riding 12 miles to work. It was a little stressful but much less stressful than waiting in horrific traffic tie ups in Old Town Alexandria. I also used to use my bike to take advantage of free parking in East Potomac Park when I worked at L'Enfant.
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